A Lonely September
by Quicklove202
Summary: AU. Just before junior year started, Quinn's boyfriend left her without so much as a goodbye. She tried to fill the void in his absence but just ended up with more heartache. Now over a year later, he's back. What will happen? Bad at summaries. Jacob/Quinn. ONESHOT.


**AN: So...I once again got inspired. This time by this season's Britney episode, but really just Marley's solo. That song she seems is so damn addicting. This has nothing to do with that and is just another piece of randomness that I came up with. It's AU, obviously, and takes place during season three. Quinn's a skank in this. I mean, the pink-haired, punk clothed wearing girl, not like an actual skank. Anyways, what cha need to know is explained in the story. It's a little angsty. So, read. enjoy. review!**

* * *

She's sitting alone near the top of the bleachers, feeling empty, as usual. It's late afternoon, with the sun hanging low in the sky. Even though it was nearly October, it was still hot as it had been during summer. (Probably didn't help that most of her outfits these days consisted of black leather). The Cheerios don't have practice today and the football team's practice ended about a half hour ago. So it's just her. Her fellow skanks had hung around for awhile, the lot of them relaxing under the bleachers as they smoked, before they got bored and decided to go hit up the 7-Eleven down the street. She opted out, just because she needed her alone time. Those girls gave her a headache almost every day and combined that with the amount of cigarettes she went through, it did made for an irritable Quinn. But then again, when wasn't she irritable these days?

Glancing at the clock on her phone, she sees that she has a missed call from her mom. She shakes her head, pushing the phone back into her pocket. She doesn't want to go home. Not that she considers that place a home anyways. Nothing was the same after her mother left her father. Quinn lost all contact with him, not that she cared, and her mother…well her mother had a new best friend in alcohol. Not a day went by when the woman wasn't drunk. Like Quinn, her mother stopped caring.

She starts picking at the black varnish on her fingernails out of boredom. She focuses her attention solely on removing the polish, even though she'd just repainted her nails. It was incredibly quiet in the stadium, making the sound of her scratching off her nail polish seem louder than it actually was. She faintly hears footsteps but doesn't pay them any attention. Probably one of the stoners who liked to hang around under the stadium. But then someone stepped onto the lowest row of bleachers, making the whole structure echo and forcing her to look up.

She was pretty sure her heart stopped right then and there. Jacob.

She blinked a few times, to ensure that what she was seeing was real and not some cruel, twisted hallucination. She stared at him, realizing that this man was indeed Jacob. _Her _Jacob.

But he'd changed. A lot. He looked so much older than when she'd last seen him. And bigger too. When she'd last seen him, he was already taller than Finn. Now, he looked as though he grew another five, six inches. Which led her to look at his body. He looked like the Hulk's younger brother or something. He was nothing but muscle now. Granted he had muscle before, more than most of the guys here, but now he was twice his size.

And he was…well, to put it delicately…sexier than hell.

He didn't look anything like the boy she fell in love with over a year ago. But then again, she probably didn't look like the girl he fell in love with either.

She cleared her throat, hoping she'd be able to speak without sounding too much like a frog. Damn cigarettes' fault. "Your hair's short."

She wasn't sure why she decided to comment on his hair as the first thing she said to him, but she couldn't focus on anything else.

All his beautiful hair was gone. Cropped short, no longer long enough to be kept in a ponytail as he used to have it.

She watches as he makes his way up the bleachers, his hulking frame shaking the rows, "So is yours." His voice is much deeper too, she realizes. He hardly sounds like himself. "And its pink."

She nods, noticing the dark circles under his eyes for the first time. He looked as though he hadn't slept in weeks, or longer.

Lucky for her, she has makeup to cover up her dark circles.

Her body stiffens when he stands on the bleachers two rows from the ones she's sitting on so that he's obstructing her view of everything in front of her. Making it so that all she could see was him.

She mentally swears as she takes in his biceps, which are bigger than her thighs now, as he folds his arms across his chest. "Munching on steroids a new past time of yours?" she asks, mentally scolding herself for so obviously checking him out.

"What the hell happened to you?" he demands, looking her up and down and frowning.

"You happened." she spat in the same sharp tone, "That's what."

It seemed like forever ago when they first met. It was the summer she'd given birth to Beth, before junior year. She'd met him while in line at the local burger joint. He was staying with his uncle and his family for the whole summer. She had been a little surprised when she found that she was attracted to him right off the bat, since he wasn't really her type. But he had been sweet to her and ended up being there for her when she didn't have anyone else.

She had to deal with the loss of Beth, which was a really hard thing for her to do, but Jacob made it easier to handle.

He was the first guy to actually listen to her and to be interested in what she had to say. He made her laugh, made her smile, made her feel good about herself in ways that Finn or Puck never did. (Even Sam wouldn't be able to compare when he later came around). It wasn't long before she was head over heels in love with Jacob, feeling things she'd never felt before. Things she never thought she could feel.

But of course, like everything else in her life, it got screwed up. It was nearing the end of summer when it happened. When Jacob left. Out of the blue, with no warning. She knew he'd have to go back to Washington eventually, but she at least expected him to say goodbye to her in some way, shape, or form. A phone call, an email, or even a text. But no, she got nothing. She was completely blindsided. He'd completely disappeared on her without any explanation. And then when she tried to call him, she found that his phone had been disconnected. It was like he wanted nothing to do with her. To this day she had yet to figure out why. Or _what_ she did to make him leave her so coldly.

She dwelled on it for months, wondering- more like _obsessing_, over what she could've possibly done but it wasn't until the New Directions' trip to New York where she realized he probably just stopping loving her. Simple as that. Finn had stopped, Sam had too. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Jacob had as well.

She quickly pulled herself out of those thoughts, knowing how sensitive they were to her and if she wasn't careful, she'd be liable to start crying this very second. She couldn't have that. She couldn't cry in front of him. That would make him think she was weak. And Quinn Fabray was not weak.

"One of your friends somehow got a hold of me." he replies, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What? Who?"

She'd mentioned him to some of the Glee girls but she didn't understand how any of them could've gotten a hold of Jacob, when she herself couldn't even do so.

"A Rachel Berry?" he answered, a little unsure if the name was right or not.

"Rachel Berry." Her eyebrow arched at the sound of the name on her lips.

Rachel Berry contacted _her_ ex-boyfriend.

Without telling her.

How the hell did the hobbit manage that? And why did she want to contact him? Was she trying to steal _yet_ another guy from her? Wasn't stealing Finn away from her _twice_, enough? Quinn was already planning the short brunette's murder in her head.

"She said you hopped on a train to crazy town and that I needed to talk some sense into you."

"Oh and now you're suddenly concerned about my well being?" she snaps, glaring at him harshly. "Where have you been for the past year? Huh?"

He ignores her question blatantly. "You look like a sad _My little pony _with that pink hair, you know that? And nice nose ring by the way."

He leans forward before she has a chance to process any kind of remark and plucks the damn piece of jewelry out of her nose before she could even blink. She stared at him with wide eyes as he tossed the small ring over his shoulder.

How the hell had he'd known it was a fake is what she wants to know. Not even her group of Skanks had suspected that it was a fake.

Her jaw tightens as she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. She has such an urge to punch him in the face but as she takes in that strong jaw of his, she has a feeling it'll just end with her in a cast.

Her muscles stiffen when he sits down next to her, his hulking frame making her feel a lot like a child. Now she knows how Rachel must feel next to Finn.

Her gaze drifts down to his arm and her eyebrows lift in surprise. "You've got a tattoo."

He looked back at her as she nods her head toward the black ink peeking out from under his sleeve.

"And apparently so do you." he smirked, peering behind her toward her exposed lower back that showed off her Ryan Secreast tattoo. "Almost looks real."

She grits her teeth together because he's once again right. She hadn't had the balls to get her nose pierced (she's deathly afraid of needles) let alone get a fuckin' tattoo.

"Some bad ass you are," he shakes his head, "fake nose ring, fake tattoo." he suddenly lifts up a strand of her pink hair, "Now is this really dyed or did you just spray paint it pink?" She slapped his hand away, scowling at the smile on his face. For a second that smile reminded her of the old Jacob.

She shakes her head of the thought and pulled out a cigarette from her breast pocket, along with a lighter. Him being here was really stressing her out. She puts the cigarette in her mouth and before the flame of the lighter can even light the damn thing, Jacob snatches the stick out of her mouth and tosses it down in between the bleachers. "What the hell?"

"What, are you doing drugs too?" he wonders, looking into her eyes closely.

"Of course not." she snaps, reaching into her pocket again and pulling out another cigarette. She swears loudly when he snatches that one too, disposing of it just like the other one. She stands up, furiously grabbing her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. She doesn't need this. She doesn't need him. She heads down the bleachers quickly, but carefully, because she doesn't want her dramatic exit to be ruined by a sudden face plant.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she hears him call after her as he heads after her. That does it.

She spins around after stepping off the last row of bleachers. "What's wrong with me?" she repeats, her voice raised with anger, "What's wrong with you! Why the hell are you even here, Jacob? You left. I haven't seen you in over a year and after getting a call from a girl who isn't even my friend, you decide come back? Why?"

"I'm here to help you, Quinn." he says as calmly as he possibly can, "It's clear you need it. This isn't you."

"Just go home Jacob. Forget about me. You did it once. I'm sure you can do it again." And with that, she turns on her heel to leave, but his hand grasps her wrist, keeping her from doing so. He yanked her back, forcing her to turn around and face him. "I never once forgot about you." he all but growled, "I've thought about you every minute of every hour of every fuckin' day."

She bits her lip, because it's exactly what she'd been hoping to hear, but at the same time it just makes her hate him more.

She shakes her head and forces herself to look up into his eyes. "You didn't even have the decency to break up with me, Jacob! Or tell me that you didn't want to be with me anymore. You just left."

She sucked in a sharp breath before continuing, "You know, guys have done some pretty fucked up things to me, but what you did…" she drifted off, feeling her throat tighten and hot tears well up in her eyes. "No call. No text. No warning that you were leaving. You just left. No explanation. Nothing. No goodbye. Was I really that awful of a girlfriend to you?"

"Of course not, Quinn. You were the best thing that ever happened to me." he says honestly, bringing his hand to her cheek to swipe away her lone tear.

"Then why'd you leave me?" she whispers, her voice cracking at the end.

He starts to shake his head, "I didn't want to, lamb. I _had_ to."

She smiles softly at his nickname for her, but then her eyebrows furrow in confusion at the last part. "Meaning?"

He hesitates for a moment, reluctantly dropping his hand, "Nothing."

"Don't you dare shut me out, Jacob Black." she growls, the anger boiling up again. "I deserve to know why. I deserve to know the truth."

"I can't tell you, Quinn."

And that was the truth. He literally couldn't. He wanted to tell her everything, with every fiber in his being. But he couldn't. He was too tightly bound to them, to his _pack_. The very word made his stomach twist into a knot. He didn't want to be apart of a pack. He didn't want to be a monster. But he was. And there was no getting out of it.

The real reason he'd come to Ohio for that summer was because of his father. What with Sam and the other guys in the tribe starting to phase, he hoped that his staying away for a while would keep him from becoming like Sam, or Jared, or Paul.

Jacob hadn't thought much about it then, since he was just glad to get out of La Push for once in his life. He didn't mind spending an entire summer with his uncle's family. And he sure as hell didn't mind spending time with the beautiful blonde he'd met in a burger joint his second day in town. He could easily recall that moment when they first met, down to the smallest details. It was hard to believe the angel he'd left behind had turned into the pink haired she-devil that now stood in front of him.

But what really killed him was the fact that he was the cause of this change. He did this to her, or at least had a part in it.

They'd spent a wonderful summer together. He'd fallen head over heels in love with her, and vis versa. He didn't care that she'd just had a baby, or cheated on her boyfriend with his best friend. She had made a mistake and he knew she wasn't proud of it. So instead of dwelling on it, he helped her move on. He'd never smiled so much or laughed so hard compared to when he was with her. Everything was going perfectly, until he started showing signs of shifting toward the end of summer. The fever. The growth spurt. The temper. The muscle. His father had tried to protect him from this, but the damage was already done.

His uncle automatically knew what was happening to him, but no one bothered to tell him what the hell was going on. It wasn't until he exploded out of his skin and into a large wolf in his uncle's backyard that he realized that his tribe's legends were actually reality. _His_ reality.

After his uncle explained to him everything, he realized that he could never see Quinn again.

Not if he wanted to keep her safe.

The wolf was dangerous. Which meant _he_ was dangerous. The littlest of things could set him off. Any intense emotion, whether positive or negative, could trigger his wolf side. And if he was too close to someone at the time, he could seriously hurt someone he loved. Even kill.

He couldn't let anything bad happen to Quinn. He just couldn't. He couldn't tell her about his secret even if he wanted to, and if he could, it wouldn't be right to drag her into this sick world of his. She had done nothing to him to even deserve that punishment. He wouldn't ask her to stand by the side of a monster.

She deserved a normal life: a house in suburbs, with a white picket fence, a good looking husband with financial stability, two and a half kids and a dog. All that crap he could never give her.

He knew he had to leave as soon as possible. His uncle had contacted his father, who contacted the pack, who would run out to meet him halfway in their wolf forms. But before he left, he knew he had to see Quinn. One last time. So he went to her house. He thought of all the ways he could tell her goodbye, but every scenario was too painful for him to even process. He figured he'd spare them both and just leave without warning. She'd get over it soon enough. Or at least that's what he hoped.

He'd lingered in her backyard, listening to the sound of her heartbeat. He kept an eye on her window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her before he had to leave for good. Then it happened. She came to the window, directly in his line of view and then suddenly everything felt different. The earth itself had shifted.

At the time he had no idea what that meant, so he just brushed off the feeling as best he could and retreated back into the woods before she saw him. He would later learn that the whole 'earth shifting' thing was something called imprinting. Sam had explained it to him one day when he was back in La Push. After hearing that, he immediately knew that he'd imprinted on Quinn when he saw her.

But he didn't tell anyone. Not his pack, not his father, no one. He kept those thoughts out of his head, especially when the others were phased along with him. He didn't want anyone to know about it. It was hard to keep it a secret, but he managed. He knew if he did say something about it, he'd just get lectured or teased, or congratulated, really when all he wanted was to be left alone. He didn't want to have any more things in common with the guys than he already did. He still hated them all, to some extent, even though he knew none of this was their fault.

He knew being away from Quinn would be painful. He'd heard Sam and Jared's thoughts enough times when they were out patrolling to know how physically and mentally draining it was to be away from their imprints. Still, he would gladly suffer every day if it meant Quinn's safety and well-being.

He never even thought about the effects this thing would have on her. They say imprinting worked both ways, but he never really thought about it that much. He figured the wolf would be the one who suffered most of all. But then he'd see Emily, or Kim, or Rachel when they weren't with their guys. Little things he noticed. The discomfort, the hidden pain. And that was just for a few hours. Quinn…he'd left her over a year ago, and look what happened to her.

The sound of her voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "Okay." her voice is much calmer than it had been before, which surprises him, "You can't tell me. But can you at least tell me why you never contacted me. Why you never told me you had to leave. Or said goodbye?"

He sighed heavily, the pain and confusion on her face enough to make him want to rip out his heart. "Because I knew I wouldn't be able to say goodbye to you. I had to cut you off completely. It wasn't what I wanted but it had to be done. You weren't safe with me anymore."

She frowned, "Weren't safe anymore?" she scoffs, "Jacob, you really need to stop with the vague answers. What happened to you? We used to be able to tell each other _everything_."

"That was a long time ago, lamb. Things have changed." he says apologetically, "And I'm truly sorry, but you have to trust me on this."

"Trust you? How can I trust you when you can't even tell me the truth?" She shakes her head and turns back around, exiting the stadium.

He wordlessly follows her into the parking lot, where she walks toward her car. As soon as she takes her keys out of her bag, he takes them from her without warning. He then opens the car door and gets in the driver's seat before she can object.

"Sure, Jacob, you can drive my car." she mutters sarcastically before walking around to the other side.

She gets in the passenger seat, not bothering to slide her seatbelt on. She puts her feet up on the dashboard, waiting for him to start the car. But when he doesn't, she looks over at him to find him staring at her. She huffs in frustration, as she's silently forced to put her seatbelt on _and_ take her feet off the dashboard. Stupid Jacob. It was her car!

* * *

"And where are you taking me, exactly?" she asks, looking around and frowning. "You know this isn't the way to my house. Or have you forgotten?"

"We're not going to your house just yet." he replied, pulling up to a stoplight and stopping. "We're going to _Target _first."

She looks at him curiously, yet annoyed, "And why are we doing that?"

"To get you some hair dye."

She snorted. "I like my hair the way it is, thank you very much."

He scoffs, "Well I don't."

"Well I really don't give a damn what you think. So turn the car around."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"It's my car." she snaps, clearly frustrated.

"I don't care."

"I will punch you in the nuts, Jacob Black." she threatened.

"I'd like to see you try." he challenged, putting on his signal and turning into the parking lot in front of _Target_.

"I refuse to dye my hair back." she states, folding her arms across her chest and slumping down in her seat in a rather childish manner.

He laughs, shaking his head. "Fine. I'll just do it myself then."

She quickly unbuckles her seatbelt when he stops the car, "You will do no such thing!"

"You're acting like a child, you know that?" He slammed the car door shut before locking the car.

"I am not." she retorts, watching as he walks over to where the carts are and taking one. "And why are you grabbing a cart? We're just getting hair dye, aren't we?"

He looks back at her and smiles triumphantly, "So you are gonna dye your hair back."

She stares at him for a second before shaking her head, "No, I'm not."

He shrugged. "Fine. Have it your way." He suddenly grabbed her by the waist and lifted her up, catching her by surprise.

"Jacob, what are you- oomph!"

"If you're gonna act like a child. I'm going to treat you like one." he smirked, watching her squirm in the child's seat in the front of the cart. Her legs were draped over the handlebar, so her knees were up to her jaw. "Jacob, get me out of here!"

"No." He turned the cart around and proceeded to push it toward the store.

"You are seriously asking for a kick to the groin, Jacob Black." she hissed, kicking her leg forward. She could feel her cheeks start to flame up as he pushed the cart through the store, catching the eye of a few customers. "Jacob, I'm serious!" she tried to get out herself, but she was stuck.

"You know, we're probably gonna have to buy you some soap too. You smell like an ashtray." he leaned forward, taking a sniff, before recoiling and wrinkling up his nose in disgust.

She rolled her eyes, "Gee thanks."

He smiled, shrugging his shoulders, "Just stating a fact, lamb."

"Don't call me that." she whispers harshly, glaring at him, "You lost the right to a long time ago."

His smile fades a little at that comment, which then leads him to stop right then and there in the middle of the aisle way. "Look Quinn, I'll make a deal with you." By now all traces of humor had left his face.

"If it somehow involves me getting out of this thing, then I'm listening, otherwise-"

He doesn't hesitate in cutting her off. "I promise to tell you the true reason I left, if _you_ promise to dye your hair back and burn all those god awful clothes of yours."

He knows the pack would have his neck if an outsider knew his secret, well their secret, but screw it. Screw them. Quinn was the most important person in his life, the most important person who would ever be in his life, and he wasn't about to lose her again. And he sure as hell wasn't going to let her continue on with this pink-haired, tough girl act when he knew it was just a desperate cry for help.

She stares at him for a moment before nodding her head, "Okay. But you also have to get me out of here."

He nodded his head, his lips curling upward. "Deal."

She sighs in relief when he lifts her out of the cart and sets her back on her own two feet. She immediately cranes her neck back, so she can look into his eyes, and rests her hands on her hips, "Okay, talk."

He shakes his head, moving around her and continuing to push the cart toward the health and beauty aisles, "Not here."

"But-"

"I'll tell you soon," he says, looking back at her, "but not right now. I promise."

She huffs, walking after him, "If you don't-"

"I will." he says firmly, turning the cart when he spots the hair dye isle, "Okay, go do your thing." He waves offhandedly to the numerous rows of different brands and shades of hair dye to his right. He's not even going to try picking out one for her.

He rests his elbows against the handlebar of the cart and watches in amazement as she easily picks out a single box without examining it much and tosses it into the cart.

He looks at her skeptically, "Are you sure that's the right one?"

"Yes I'm sure it's the right one." she snaps before walking past him and out of the aisle. He shakes his head and turns the cart around, assuming that she's probably considered dying her hair back before, but of course she won't admit to it.

"Now what are you looking for?" Quinn all but whines, desperate to leave the store already. She followed Jacob throughout the pharmaceutical aisles, ready to just leave without him. Even if it meant having to walk home. "Seriously, what are you looking for?"

"Aha!" He's either completely oblivious to what she's saying or purposely choosing to ignore her. Either way, she's used to it. She arches her eyebrow when he snatches a box off the second shelf and turns it around to read the back.

She walks up to him without hesitation and snatches the box out of his hand. She turns it around and reads the front. "Nicotine patches?"

"Yep." He grabs the box back and tosses the box into the cart.

"I'm not quitting." she leaned forward and grabbed the box out of the cart before placing it back on the shelf. "That wasn't apart of our deal."

"Well it is now." he replies, taking the box off the shelf again and placing it back in the cart. "Emphysema isn't sexy, you know."

"I don't care. I'll smoke if I want to." she once again scoops the box out of the cart and puts it back, "You're not the boss of me."

"Do you want to get cancer?" he exclaims rather loudly.

"No." she scoffs when he puts the box back in the cart. "But even if I did want to quit smoking, I wouldn't need any damn patches for it. I could do it myself."

"That's what they all say." He pushes the cart out of the small aisle and out onto the main one.

"You know all this isn't going to make things better." she says softly, walking along side him toward the registers. "It won't make me go back to the girl you left behind…she's long gone."

"That much is clear." he murmurs, stopping the cart when they reached the end of the line of the nearest cashier.

"Then why go to all this trouble?" she was avoiding eye-contact, he noticed, instead focusing her attention on the five dollar DVDs next to her.

"Because it's clear that this person you've become is not the person you want to be anymore. I'm just trying to help."

She leans forward and picks up a package of spearmint gum. "Well, I don't need your help. Nor do I want it. I'm fine with the way things are."

He shakes his head, fighting the urge to scoff, "That is such a lie and you know it."

* * *

The car ride to her house is pretty quiet. They don't talk. Well, unless you count the arguing they did over what radio station to listen to. She's smacking her gum the entire way over. He knows she knows how irritating he finds it. And he knows she's just doing it to spite him. He wants to be angry at her, or even annoyed, but he isn't. He can't be, after everything he put her through.

When they pull up to her house, she sighs in relief, thankful that her mother's car isn't in the driveway. She must've left to get more alcohol, or to visit the local bar on the other side of town. Quinn gets out of the car the same time Jacob does and the two of them make their way up to the front door.

"So…how's your mom?" he asks, watching as she fishes her keys out of her bag.

"She's an alcoholic." she replies casually, pushing the key into the lock and turning it to the right. She pushes the door open and steps inside, Jacob following suit. She leads him through the house and up to her room, where he closes her door behind him.

He watches as she takes off her combat boots and carelessly kicks them aside. He opens up the bag in his hands and pulls out the box of hair dye before tossing it to her, catching her off guard. She glares at him for that and walks over to her closet, grabbing a few items. He can't help but chuckle at her grumbling and sits down on the edge of her bed. She disappears into her bathroom shortly after, sharply closing the door behind her.

He looks around, surveying her room. Everything looked the same. No major changes that he could point out.

He waits patiently for her to finish up, drumming his fingers against his knee. He keeps glancing back at her clock, wondering how long it takes to actually dye your hair back. He'd never been particularly good at waiting. And now as a wolf, he had less patience than he had before.

Finally, after resorting to pacing the room, he hears the door click open. When he looks up, he finds her in a white dress with damp blonde locks. She unexpectedly throws the damp towel in her hands to him, "Happy now?"

"I don't know." he throws the towel back at her and walks over to her, "Are you?"

She doesn't answer him, instead turns around and hangs the towel up on the back of her door. "I dyed my hair back like _you_ wanted, now it's your turn to keep up your end of our deal."

He sits back down on her bed and shakes his head, "Not until you tell me what happened to you while I was gone." He knew there had to of been more to it than his leaving to have made her crack.

"Why do you keep avoiding telling me the truth?" he can tell by the sound of her voice that she's annoyed. Tired. Hell he is too.

"Because you're better off not knowing it." he simply states, already regretting making that stupid deal in the first place.

She cocks her head to the side, her arms folded across her chest, "So you'd rather just have me hating you until the day I die?"

"You hate me?" He knows how stupid of him it is to sound surprised. He knows she hates him, but just hearing it out loud makes him realize he's never had anyone hate him before.

"I hate you for leaving in the way you did."

He nods understandingly, "You should." If the roles were reversed, he definitely would.

"But I never stopped loving you." she admits in a voice that's barely above a whisper.

He stands up, so that they're extremely close to each other. Their bodies almost touching. "Neither did I."

She stepped back a few paces to get some distance in between them, "I tried though."

Boy did she try. She tried distracting herself with Sam. And when that didn't work, she tried with Finn. That definitely didn't work. She didn't dare try being with Puck again. Knowing him, she'd probably end up pregnant again.

"Didn't work out too well, as you can see." she looks everywhere but at him. She then proceeds to tell him about her failed relationships with Sam and Finn.

"You want to know why those relationships didn't work out?" he asked when she finished.

She sighs heavily, "I know why, Jacob."

"Then tell me."

Her gaze moves to his chest, which is directly in her line of view, and without thinking much of it, her hand touches the surface to smooth out the wrinkle in his shirt. She finds him very warm. _Too_ warm to ever be considered healthy.

"It's always been you." she drops her hand from his chest and finally allows herself to look up into his eyes, "When you left, you took my heart with you. Pretty much made it impossible for me to love anyone else."

When he steps forward, she doesn't even try to take a step back. "I never meant to hurt you, Quinn."

"Well you did." she shuts her eyes painfully tight, trying to keep the tears in, "I've never been in so much pain before."

_And that's coming from a girl who had to give birth to a baby. Way to go, Jacob. _It almost feels as though all the air was being sucked out of the room. The reality of all the pain she'd endured during their time apart making it hard for him to breathe. Her pain. His pain. It's one in the same now.

He pulls her into his arms without warning, holding her much like he used to. Only now she's much smaller to him, just because he's grown so much. More fragile too. She slides her arms around his torso, hugging him tightly. She's more like clinging to him but he doesn't mind. In fact, he just holds her tighter, probably more than he should since she's human, but she doesn't say anything objecting to it.

He breaks the silence after a few minutes of just holding her while she cried into his chest. "I'm not leaving you."

He gently lifts her chin up so that her gaze locks onto his. "I'm not going anywhere ever again. Not without you."

She starts shaking her head in protest, "Jacob…"

"I hurt you and for that I'm sorry. But I'm gonna be here for you, from now on. I don't care what you need me to be. Your boyfriend, your friend, whatever it is, I'll be it."

She steps out of his arms, still shaking her head, "You have your own life to live, Jacob. Back in La Push. You can't just-"

He closes the distance between them once again, one of his hands moving to the small of her back as he pushes her back into his arms, "I'm not living if I'm not with you. Haven't been since I left."

She wraps her arms around him again, burying her face into his chest and sighing. It's been a long time since she's been held, _really_ held.

"You'll never be alone again, Quinn." he whispers, his warm breath tickling her skin and making her shiver. "Not as long as I'm alive."

"Promise?" She can't help but feel like this whole thing's too good to be true and that in a few seconds she'll wake up, with it all being just a dream.

He kisses her forehead and nods, taking a few seconds to breathe in her scent, "Promise."

"I want to be with you again, Jacob." she says seriously, "Even though you hurt me, I get that it wasn't intentional. We all make mistakes. Hell, I'm practically the poster girl for making them."

"I'm going to make it up to you, lamb. Just you wait and see." he leans down and lightly nuzzles her nose with his, making her genuinely smile. He almost forgot how incredible her smile was.

"So, even though I'm risking ruining this perfect moment, are you going to tell why you left in the first place?"

He hesitantly nods his head, "Yeah, but can I ask you something first?"

"Yeah, what?" she looks up at him curiously.

"You wouldn't happen to have any bacon in the house, would you?"

She stares at him for a second before chuckling, "You do remember who you're talking to, right?"

He laughs, smiling along with her, "Just making sure."

"Why do you ask?" she wonders, "Got a hankering for some bacon?"

He shrugs, "Something like that."

Truthfully he thinks he'll have better luck telling her about his whole _I'm a werewolf _thingif she's got a stomach full of bacon.

"Well, then lets cook us up some." She takes his much larger hand in her own and then steps toward her door. He pulls her back to him, much to her surprise. "What?"

"I want to do something first." He takes her in his arms, much like those old Hollywood actors did to their leading ladies in those old movies Quinn adored, and kissed her senseless. (Or at least he hoped he did). He crosses his fingers that she doesn't think it's too cheesy.

He finally pulls away after several minutes and brings her back so that she's standing upright again.

"Wow." is all she can say, which makes him chuckle.

"Is that a good wow or a bad wow?" he asks, fighting the insane urge to kiss her already swollen lips again. And again. And again.

"Good wow, definitely." she replies breathlessly, her cheeks quickly flaming up at that unexpected, yet mind blowing, all consuming, electricity running through her veins, kiss. She finally feels alive again.

After catching her breath, she grabs him by the collar of his shirt and yanks him down to her height, not hesitating in returning the kiss. She instantly loses herself in the kiss and smiles against his lips, for the first time in over a year no longer feeling empty.

Nope. Just complete.

* * *

**AN: Again this is randomeness but reviews would be appreciated! **

**Oh and the title is from the Plain White T's song of the same name. I was pretty much listening to it on repeat and since I'm so bad at titles...anyways, thanks for reading!**


End file.
